Two 18-year-olds have been charged with beating and robbing another man their age in the parking lot of a mall in tony Rolling Hills Estates, in an incident investigators say was captured on cellphone video.
Korey Oscar Benjamin Streeter, of Long Beach, and Rolling Hills resident Alexander Bell-Wilson are both facing one count each of second-degree robbery and assault by means of force likely to produce great bodily injury, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office said in a news release.
Sheriff’s officials previously said Streeter was from Palos Verdes Estates, and identified Bell-Wilson as a 19-year-old with the first name Declan.
Bell-Wilson is the son of Rolling Hills City Councilmember Patrick Wilson, who was the town’s mayor at the time of the attack, Patch reported.
The violence unfolded on March 22 but authorities weren’t aware of what happened until three days later, after video of the beating began circulating on social media.
Streeter and Bell-Wilson are accused of assaulting and taking the phone of an 18-year-old man diagnosed with autism, according to the DA’s office and L.A. County sheriff’s investigators.
The defendants and victim knew each other before the attack, prosecutors said.
Detectives say the cellphone video shows two men aggressively punching, kicking and mocking the victim as he lay on the ground defenseless, with several bystanders nearby.
Sheriff’s officials previously said several juveniles had been detained in connection with the incident, and that they were working to identify and arrest others involved, but only Streeter and Bell-Wilson have been charged.
The defendants are scheduled to be arraigned Wednesday.
If convicted as charged, each faces a maximum possible sentence of five years in state prison, prosecutors said.
